Cover of Logic's sixth issue, Play.
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Issue 6

Play

Play is older than culture. Culture needs human society, whereas animals play all the time. The origins of computers also lie in play—code-breaking and imitation games. Today, the gaming industry makes over one hundred billion dollars per year and we gamify everything from exercise to sex to sleep to crowdsourced scientific work. In the era of “do what you love,” the lines between work and play, pleasure and labor, blur.

Our Play issue looks at at the games people play with technology—and what happens when we let technology play us.

editorial

Man Bites Dog

In the beginning was the game.

features

Chasing the Pink

Sarah Mason

A report from our gamified future.

My Stepdad’s Huge Data Set

Gustavo Turner

What happens when data and porn collide?

Control Freaks

Jonny Bunning

How does an Apple Store work?

From the Silicon Savannah to Sheba Valley

Scott Malcomson

A dispatch from the tech hubs of East Africa.

Dropping Acid

Shuja Haider

A love letter to machine music.

chatlogs

Mainframe, Interrupted: Joan Greenbaum on the Early Days of Tech Worker Organizing

A conversation about organizing tech workers before it was cool.

The Art of Eyeball Harvesting: Shengwu Li on Online Advertising

A conversation about how companies monetize your attention.

Game Workers of the World Unite: an Interview with an Anonymous Game Worker

A conversation with an organizer within the video game development industry.

Network Effects: Raul Espejo on Cybernetic Socialism in Salvador Allende’s Chile

A conversation about using computers to run an economy.

Money Machines: an Interview with an Anonymous Algorithmic Trader

An insider explains how algorithms are rewiring finance.

patches

U Mad?

John Durham Peters

A meditation on trolling in the age of Trump.

Where it is Easy to Do Good

Everest Pipkin

The simple pleasures of living off the (virtual) land.

Closed Worlds

Heather Davidson

As one world closes, another one opens.

The Antisocial Network

Liz Pelly

A reflection on DIY in the age of Facebook.

Model Metropolis

Kevin T. Baker

The strange prehistory and dangerous afterlife of SimCity.

Not a Boy, Not Yet a Gamer

Christopher J. Persaud

One teenager’s journey into the world of competitive gaming.

(More or Less) All the Rock Models from Skyrim

Everest Pipkin

An attempted collection of every rock from Skyrim.

assets

Roleplay, Interplay, Powerplay

Jemuel Datiles, Laura Dempsey, Jamie L. Ferguson, Valdis Silins

Products and games from our near future that blur the line between play and labor.

First edition of Issue 6: Play released January 01, 2019.